A Marauder in the Snake's den
by Grown up Person
Summary: Hermione knew books, Ron knew strategy and what Harry knew was how to hide. When someone bigger and stronger is chasing you don't run, you hide in plain sight. After all, what good was a Chamber of Secrets if you don't stow your secrets in them? (Alternate ending to POA)
1. Chapter 1

Hermione's arms wrapped around him, Harry guided Buckbeak to save Sirius but his mind was elsewhere. Sirius could escape, yes, but what then? What kind of life would that be, condemned to living on the run, so far away from everything that he had only just gotten back?

His mind was still reeling at everything he'd found out about Pettigrew, that rat bastard had served him and his parents up to Voldemort on a platter. He still didn't understand this Fidelius thing, why have a Secret Keeper at all? Why not just simply go into hiding or leave the country? Why couldn't one of them have been the Secret Keeper? The lesser people knew the better, this he knew from all the secrets he himself had kept from the Dursleys.

A safe secret place...

 _'Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe-'cept maybe Hogwarts'_

A safe secret place in Hogwarts that only Harry himself could get to. He knew of something like that.

"How—?" Black was staring at him eye wide open and Harry knew just what to do.

"Get on!" He yelled and Black hurried but did it all the same and Harry steered Buckbeak away from the window but instead of going to the tower as they'd planned, he flew around the castle to a window on the second floor. "Jump in, no not you Hermione." Black hesitated just a second but followed and Harry threw the invisibility cloak at her. He flicked his wand and Buckbeak's grey plumage turned an inky black. "Go back to the paddock where they keep the other hippogriffs and use the time turner but only if you think you'll be late to the hospital wing."

"But what about you?" Hermione cried out.

"We'll be fine, GO!" He gave her no time to ask again, simply taking off at a run and expecting Sirius to follow and soon they stood in front of a very familiar bathroom.

"Harry what's going on?" Black asked but he didn't listen, simply ran into the bathroom and stood in front of that sink.

" _Open_." He hissed and ignored Black's stuttering to push the man down the pipe. "I'll be back for you in a few hours, don't worry!"

And then Harry ran. The hospital wing awaited him.

* * *

To say it was fun to see Snape lose his shit would be an understatement. It had taken everything he could to keep from laughing in the sallow faced man's face but somehow he managed. Next to him, Hermione burst into tears though, whether due to the stress of the time she'd been treading or the man's ranting Harry didn't know. It did however have the effect of dissuading Fudge and Snape from interrogating them especially when Madame Pomfrey emerged looking every bit an angry dragon as she threw them out for distressing her patients.

The next morning came too late for Harry who had been twitching in the bed that he'd been confined to impatiently. The second Madame Pomfrey gave her okay he all but ran out the door, leaving an exasperated Ron and Hermione behind him. He first went to Lupin's quarters where he found the man packing much to his anger and demanded an explanation.

"—so he-er- accidentally let it slip that I am a werewolf this morning at breakfast."

"That bastard!" Harry exclaimed.

"Language Harry." He chided but Harry ignored it.

"He's upset he didn't get an award for the lies he made up and so he ratted you out. No better than Pettigrew." He spat out and Lupin was surprised at his vehemence.

"Well Snape and Sirius always did bring out the worst in each other."

Which reminded Harry, "About that...if Sirius was here, what would you tell him?"

Lupin looked surprised at the question. "Why-"

"Hermione said that the best way to know people is to ask others what they'd like to tell them." Harry lied.

As Sirius' friend Lupin did deserve to know where he was but a secret was best kept to oneself.

"I'd tell him to turn himself in. He never got a trial you know, but now that the craziness of the war is over—" He went on in this vein and Harry's heart sank. The man was and would probably always remain one of the bets DADA teachers they'd had but he seemed to have forgotten what it was like to be a friend.

It was the Ministry that had failed Sirius twice already, why would he believe them now?

And so, with a heavy heart Harry said goodbye, pocketed the Marauder's map and with the cloak over him he crept to the second floor girls lavatory.

The Chamber was still dark. It hadn't changed much in the last year and Harry took his wand out and followed the Point Me spell to where Sirius was. He found Padfoot instead, the dog uncurling itself when he approached and his tail wagged twice before he turned human again and rushed to take Harry into a hug.

Which was unusual.

He'd been hugged before, Hermione and Mrs Weasley thought it was the best way of saying hello but this he had yet to experience. Sirius, sick as he was had strength enough to lift Harry onto his toes in that crushing hug and even when he let go he clapped his shoulder heartily. There was something so mundane about that act that Harry was left speechless and Sirius took the opportunity to lightly clock his jaw affectionately. "None of that surprise Prongslet, you'll have to get used to this. Now, mind telling me why you know how to get into old Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets?"

Harry hesitated remembering how the school had turned on him the last year and Sirius had seen him speak Parseltongue. But the hesitation lasted only as far as it took him to realise that Sirius was _concerned_ about him and then everything came tumbling out.


	2. Chapter 2

There were people who thought that Sirius Black was an open book, unable to hide anything, not his anger, his hatred, nor his love and affection. Everyone thought they knew him, they thought it was hard not to since he wore his heart on his sleeve and that was why so many people were surprised when he betrayed the Potters. They had believed it yes, he did come from that terrible family after all, the one that churned out the worst of those dark wizards but it had been shocking to many.

Sirius Black, they thought, was simply incapable of keeping secrets.

They were wrong of course, in many aspects, but that was one particularly wrong. Sirius Black had plenty of secrets. It was in fact a testament to how close he kept them that no one even realised he had any. When no one thought you had anything to hide, they didn't bother looking for it.

It was why he had suggested making Pettigrew their secret keeper. He had forgotten though, how easily people betrayed secrets that didn't involve them. There was nothing he regretted more than that one decision of his. If he hadn't done that, maybe James and Lily would still be alive, Harry wouldn't be an orphan, Remus wouldn't be so damn dead on the inside, like he'd been kissed by a Dementor.

So many maybes.

Now his godson had pushed him down a pipe into a place not even Sirius had known of, one that smelt of dank and rot. A few air-clearing charms were first and then Sirius stepped forward cautiously.

This was a place so well hidden that Harry had thought it was safe for him to hide there under the noses of those who would look for him, against everything Dumbledore had told him as was evident from the girl's squawking when Harry had changed their plans.

A Lumos triggered something in the chamber and torches that glowed an oddly green light suddenly lighted it up. Sirius followed their trail carefully only to flatten himself against a wall when something came into view. The lights flickered gently lighting up the scales of that enormous snake and when it did not move for several minutes, not even in a gentle rise to indicate its life, Sirius felt safe enough to come closer.

A basilisk. A HUGE basilisk, it's eyes torn by talon marks and he recalled the whispers he had heard from the students once and realised just where Harry had put him.

The Chamber of Secrets.

He recalled then, the hissing that Harry had done to open the way up and realised just how safe this place was. Only Harry himself would be able to get in here.

For the first time in years, Sirius was _safe_. The cold stone made for an uncomfortable bed but knowing that he wouldn't have to sleep with an eye half open more than made up for it and within seconds, he was curled up fast asleep.

* * *

His godson was a bit of a surprise to Sirius, had been since he'd first seen him outside Petunia's house. When he'd stormed out of the house with his trunk in tow Sirius had been surprised. It was rather reminiscent of how he'd left Grimmauld Place when he was sixteen. Harry had been shaking as well although in his case it was probably because of anger and not because of Crucios cast upon him like it had been with Sirius.

Sirius didn't like that. He wouldn't wish his upbringing on Snape, let alone his own godson.

Not that his career at Hogwarts seemed better. It had taken a little over three hours but Harry had finally finished telling him all about his first two years in Hogwarts.

What in the hell was going on in the school? When Sirius was a student things had been pretty bad, Voldemort was slowly but surely taking over and the Slytherins he was 'recruiting' engaged in utterly vile behaviour and dabbled in the Dark Arts to prove their loyalty and it was still better than what Harry had experienced.

A Cerberus, a dragon, a dark lord, and that the Mirror of Erised all in his first year, how did this happen under Dumbledore's nose? At the very least though, it proved that Harry was right in keeping Sirius here. Clearly, Dumbledore didn't keep a close eye on the school and the ministry wouldn't dare step into Dumbledore's territory even if he was doing a shit job of keeping it safe.

"Do you trust me Harry?" Sirius asked even though he knew the answer to that already. Part of him wondered though, with how quickly Harry had agreed to live with him only minutes after finding out that he wasn't a mass murderer.

His hesitation was answer enough and Sirius was uncontrollably proud of that.

"I know you're innocent of your crimes." He answered after a minute of deliberation. "I trust you to want what's best for me."

"But not for me to _do it_." Sirius completed for him. It didn't sting quite as badly as he thought it would.

"I don't know where I am on your list of priorities. And I get the feeling you want to be out there hunting down Pettigrew more than you want to play house with me." Harry sighed. "And to be honest I don't like the idea of that rat out there either so I don't blame you for it. Voldemort keeps trying to kill me every year. I don't like thinking about what will happen when Pettigrew finds him."

Sirius frowned at that. Harry said it like it was foregone, an absolute certainty. "Why do you think he'd do that?"

"In my divination exam Trelawney kind of went into a weird trance. She said that the one who betrayed his friends would break free and reunite with his master. At first I thought it was all just rot but then Pettigrew escaped and-"

"A prophecy?" That wasn't good. He didn't know the exact details but Sirius knew that it was a prophecy that had sent the Potters into hiding. "That's not good."

"Why not?"

Sirius debated telling Harry the truth. It wasn't the type of thing he wanted a thirteen year old to know, not when it concerned his parents' murders. But it concerned his parents' murder and the failed attempt on his own life. Didn't he deserve to know? Dumbledore, McGonagall, his relatives, they'd all kept things from him. How had that worked out? Harry hadn't even known to watch his back when he'd come to Hogwarts and look how that turned out.

"Harry what I'm about to tell you, take it with a grain of salt okay? I've only heard this from others myself don't even know how true it is but...there was some prophecy of some kind. It was supposed to be about You-Know-Who's defeat and he learnt about it. It was why your family and the Longbottoms went into hiding and why he came after them."

Harry mouth dropped open but snapped shut just as quickly. Sirius could practically see him thinking about it what he'd been told, not good thoughts if the grinding of his teeth and lines of muscle appearing in his neck as he tensed were anything to go by.

"Not my family," He said in a flat tone and Sirius was afraid of what he would say next, "- _me_."

"What?"

"The Dementors. When they get near I can hear them dying, I can hear Voldemort laughing, I see the green light."He hissed and Sirius froze. He had his fair share of bad memories and none of them came close to this. Harry's first memory and it was of murder. "He told Mum to step aside. He didn't want to kill _them_ , he wanted to kill me."


	3. Chapter 3

" _I killed them."_

Sirius couldn't stop himself from sweeping Harry into a hug. The kid needed it, desperately.

"You listen to me, the only one who killed anyone here was Voldemort. No one else, you hear me."

"But if it wasn't for me he wouldn't have-"

"You think that was the first time they faced him? Thrice before they'd fought him in battle, once even back when we were still in school and Voldemort attacked Hogsmeade on a weekend. Don't ever say something stupid like that."

The trembling continued and Harry tried to pull away but Sirius wouldn't let him. He needed this more than anything else. And perhaps, Sirius needed it more than he had realised as well. It had been so long since he'd had any human contact he had forgotten what it felt like, forgotten that there was more to the world than the cold that the Dementors brought with them.

"If anything it was my fault. I told them to change the Secret Keeper and look what happened."

Harry shook his head still loosely held in Sirius' arms and the older man almost laughed at the ticklish sensation.

"Not your fault." He pulled away to look Sirius over carefully before speaking in measured words. "If I try to stop believing that I killed my parents, would you do it too?"

Sirius could only stare in amazement and wonder what James could possibly have done to deserve such a good son. It was an adult way of looking at things and Sirius, remembering his own actions when he was fourteen, was in awe.

Because Sirius himself had always found it easier to be a child than an adult. It was easier to give in to the flashes of anger, easier to think only of the moment, of worrying about no one but himself and what affected him and his own.

"You're a good boy Harry." His godson flushed. "I'll try if you try." He continued more solemnly.

"So, have you found anything interesting here? Other than the dead basilisk, of course."Harry frowned. "It's a good place to hide but not to live in."

"Haven't looked around much yet."

And this was the lair of a Parselmouth. Sirius had grown up in a house that longed for a parseltongue in their ranks and as such knew well how badly parselmagic would react to one who wasn't a Speaker. Eventually he could work it out of course, making armour from the basilisk skin would provide enough protection but until then he would stay to where he knew.

After all, there was still the worry of what he was to do now. Would he stay once the Dementors left or leave? They would still be looking for him of course and he wouldn't really be safe unless he was out of the country but he didn't want to leave the country. Harry quite obviously needed an adult that he could trust and leaving him all of a sudden would be idiotic and mean of him.

But he couldn't stay in the chamber all the time either. Even Sirius had needs after all and after spending the last twelve years in a prison he didn't look forward to being trapped again, even if it was of his own volition.

"You could use my Invisibility Cloak to get around Hogwarts. Don't have much use for it over the summer."

"That's awfully trusting of you, Harry."

"You were one of the marauders, I don't doubt you could get around easy enough as long as you had the cloak." Harry thought it over. "Or we could just tell Dumble-"

"NO!" Sirius barked out and the sheer vitriol with which he said it shocked Harry but Sirius had reason.

The Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and he couldn't get him a trial? Headmaster of a school and he couldn't keep the students safe at all? Greatest Wizard of his time and had an eleven year old face the Darkest Wizard of their era every single time he came back?

If he couldn't do his job, any of his jobs in fact, then what good was Dumbledore?

Sirius wasn't going to forget that it was Severus who ruined Remus' life, wasn't going to forget that it was Dumbledore who had given Severus that second chance. And why did he do that anyway? How did Severus command such protection from him when Dumbledore couldn't even ensure that Sirius would be given an actual trial, something he could do easily just by telling them Sirius deserved to be tried for breaking into Hogwarts and endangering students. No, he sent two kids on an adventure to save him by misusing a Time-Turner!

An artefact that was so powerful, had so many consequences that the _Unspeakables_ of all people regulated their usage. And it had been given to a thirteen year old witch for her classes.

How ridiculous. They could have just adjusted her schedule to sit with the classes the other houses had but instead they gave her a Time-Turner. It was sheer lunacy, nothing more. He couldn't believe that the sensible Minerva McGonagall he knew had agreed to this. These were not the professors he knew, this was not the Hogwarts he had lived in.

And it just. Didn't. Make. Sense.

The Muggleborns had pointed out the Wizarding World's stagnation on many occasions and yet somehow in the last decade the world had changed so much? Sirius couldn't believe it. Grindelwald's war had come and gone and changed little why then did _their_ war, one that Sirius knew was fought on a much smaller scale than Grindelwald's was, affecting Wizarding society so much?

So many questions and yet Sirius had no answer. And somehow it felt like there was more to come, more to change.

"What do we do then?" Harry asked and Sirius broke out of his thoughts.

"First, Heir Potter, I would request your permission to harvest the basilisk's skin to turn into armour."

"Umm, sure? Why are you calling me Heir Potter?"

Sirius couldn't help but stare at him. Surely Harry would know of his position, of his duties?

"Because you are the heir to the most Ancient and Noble house of Potter."

"Ancient and Noble house? What does that mean?"

Sirius reeled in disbelief. "Harry this is very important, I want you to tell me everything you know about the Wizarding world apart from Hogwarts."

"Well...Fudge is the Minister or the Ministry of Magic, it has a department for the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts," Harry began to truly struggle then and Sirius was slowly realising that Harry was more ignorant of the Wizarding world than any Muggleborn he had ever met. "Oh and you can't use magic outside of school if you're a minor."

"Harry, do you even know how Wizarding trials are judged?"

"Considering you didn't get one I'm guessing they aren't judged often." He said sarcastically but straightened up soon after. "The Wizengard thing right?"

Sirius could feel his eyelashes fluttering against his cheek as he trembled at those words. Why had they let him stay so ignorant of his own world?

"Wizengamot. Harry, I want you to do something. This last week you have in Hogwarts, spend it in the library learning about our world. There's a book on Pureblood customs and Wizarding traditions there that you need to know from cover to cover. If anything confuses you, come find me and I'll help you understand but try not to raise too much suspicion and always use your invisibility cloak and beware the portraits. They are spelled to speak the truth to the Headmaster and I'm not sure he needs to know any of this."

Harry waved Sirius' concerns off. "It's fine, I'll tell Ron and Hermione I'm looking for a way to clear your name and if I go missing they'll just think I went moping."

"You do that often, do you?"

"This year I remembered watching my parents die and Voldemort try to kill me. If I'm not busy, I _will_ be moping."

The words were bitter and as Sirius flinched, Harry drew inward. After a few moments of silence, he spoke again.

"About our situation, would a house elf help?"

Sirius couldn't help the bark of laughter that left him. A house elf would be incredibly helpful, their powers were severely underestimated and all but limitless. For all that they were deemed 'lesser beings', they were coveted like little else was in high society. All house elves, he knew, would be owned and traded in Pureblood circles, a society that Harry could not hope to navigate.

"You know a free elf looking to take care of a presumed mass murderer?" Sirius asked laughingly and was shocked into silence by Harry's quick answer.

"A free elf, yes, and he'd take care of you if I asked him to, I think." He gaped as his godson paced the floor, muttering to himself. "I don't know how to contact Dobby though."

Dobby, the house elf, had featured in Harry's tale, yes, but Sirius didn't know that he'd been freed.

"Master Harry Potter sir is calling for Dobby?"

They whirled as one and found themselves staring at a pair of large wide green eyes and a pointy nose. He was young, very young, Sirius could tell, probably only twenty years old.

And he was wearing clothes. An old shirt, heinously yellow and bright, an equally loud pair of orange knickerbockers that were being held up by a girl's belt judging by the pretty butterfly buckle and mismatched socks.

House elves that were freed, given clothes did not wear them, no it was a sign of shame and for Dobby to stand there, so proud and bright in his violently neon clothes was an utter and absolute anomaly. It only made sense that Harry would find himself surrounded by oddballs, such was his gravitas.

"Dobby, this is my godfather, Sirius Black." The ball sized eyes grew impossibly large but narrowed quickly and Dobby put himself between Harry and Sirius immediately.

"You is not to be hurting Master Harry!"

"Dobby— Dobby, calm down. He didn't do it, any of it, it was someone else!"

As quick as he could Harry explained it to the house elf who did not let Sirius out of his sight for a second of it.

"-So you see he needs someone who might be able to help him and I know that you're powerful and can come and go out of Hogwarts whenever you want."

"Master Harry Potter sir is wanting Dobby to take care of his dogfather?" Dobby asked reverently and even Sirius who had seen how servile house elves could be was surprised by this.

It's not like he didn't know that House elves could be more than just servants, he had seen how Kreacher had doted upon Regulus. Their house elf had adored Regulus more than their mother or father had, would have followed Sirius' brother to the end of the world and it was a loyalty that Regulus had somehow earned, not just commanded.

And in the deepest crevices of his mind he would admit that part of his hate for that old elf was jealousy, that Regulus had an ally in that snake pit they called a home.

"Only if you want to."

"Master Harry Potter sir is wanting Dobby to be his house elf?" Dobby's eyes were turning shiny with tears. Happy ones as far as Sirius could tell.

"I guess so? I can't pay you much though and if you don't wan-"

"Master Harry Potter sir is paying Dobby?"

"Of course I would, what kind of person do you take me to be?" Harry was growing offended and Sirius couldn't let that happen. There was enough bad in Harry's life without him inventing things.

"House elves don't get paid."

"What? Why not?"

"House elves' bond to their family is important. They have a direct link to magic which is why they are so powerful but without the conduit of a bond, house elves often..." What was an acceptable way to tell a thirteen year old 'Explode due to too much power and no way to direct it'. "Stop existing."

"Are you still alright then?" He asked Dobby, worried and the house elf all but twirled at having such concern driven to him.

"It's not immediate, it takes a few years and house elves are very much in demand and don't go unbonded often." Sirius assured him.

"Well that's good and all but if you accept the job, Dobby, you're getting paid, alright?" Harry twisted his mouth. "Although we'll have to do a lump sum arrangement, I can't go to Gringotts while I'm at the Dursleys' or at school."

"You don't need to do any of that. Once Dobby is bonded to you he can access your vaults."

"Vault." Harry corrected absently and again Sirius couldn't help but stare at him.

"No, I mean vaults."

"I have one vault Sirius."

Surely, Harry didn't think his trust vault was all he had?

"Harry, you're the heir of an Ancient and Noble house, you have vaults." He would need his magical guardian's permission to access them of course but he had them and it was just a matter of asking Dumbledor-

No, not Dumbledore. Asking _him_ , Sirius as his godfather was Harry's magical guardian. Now that he wasn't incarcerated anymore, even if he had broken out of prison, he could still give Harry permission to go into his family vaults.

And with the family vaults came the Potter properties. Properties that were warded like Grimmauld Place had been, wards that would keep even the Dementors at bay.

 _Now_ they had a proper plan.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry was amazed by the new treasure trove of knowledge and information he had found. It wasn't the library, not even Hermione. Instead, it was one Neville Longbottom.

At first, he had gone to him just because of what Sirius had mentioned in passing, that the Longbottoms had gone into hiding due to the prophecy. And that was when Harry realised that Neville, who lived with his strict, terrifying grandmother, who shook like a leaf when Snape was around, who turned into a absolute genius in the greenhouses, _he_ might have had the moniker of 'Boy-Who-Lived' bestowed upon him if things had gone differently.

So Harry had thought that perhaps Neville might know something of it, maybe he knew the prophecy, not just _about_ it but what it actually said. And so he went to his fellow Gryffindor instead of the library as Sirius had suggested, one day when Hermione was still visiting Ron at the infirmary.

"Neville, could I talk to you?" The boy was confused and understandably so. It was easier for Harry to talk to Dean or Seamus about Quidditch, Neville was a relatively unknown quantity around the Gryffindor dorms. "It's about your parents."

He stiffened and went white and Harry realised he must have hit a sore spot and quickly continued.

"Well, them and my parents, sort of. Actually, it's about us but-"

"Harry?" Neville interrupted, not quite as pale now so Harry must have managed to diffuse the tension somewhat.

"There was a prophecy-,"Harry blurted out. "It's why Voldemort came after me as a baby and I just found out that it could have been about you too so I was wondering."

"What prophecy?" Neville said tightly but there was steel in his voice and his face like Harry had never seen before and Harry realised that Neville knew even lesser than he did at this point. Harry took a deep breath, calmed himself down and spoke evenly.

"I don't know the exact prophecy or anything about it actually. But I was told that it was the reason why the Longbottoms went into hiding." Neville was curious now, holding himself tighter than Harry had ever seen him but he wanted to know. But Harry didn't know if he had it in him to confide in Neville. He didn't know the boy after all but at the same time, didn't Neville deserve to know? It did concern him as well after all. "I don' know what it said but when the Dementors come close I can remember my mum and dad dying and...Voldemort tells them to get out of the way. It's me he wanted to kill," Harry bore down on the wave of guilt that passed through him reminding himself that it was Voldemort's fault, he _chose_ to kill them.

"That's why..." Neville shuddered, pale again as if reliving his worst memory and Harry wondered morbidly if it was anything like his own. "We were born one day apart you know. Neville whispered softly and Harry wondered if that was part of the prophecy too.

Maybe. He didn't know. He didn't know anything.

"Why are you telling me this?" Neville pleaded with a suspicious wet voice and Harry swallowed.

"Trelawney made a prophecy during my exam. Said the servant would return to the master and he would come back. I think she was talking about Voldemort and I just...I thought if you knew anything or..."

There was a crackle in the air and everything around them suddenly flew back, even Harry skidded an inch under its effects.

"You-Know-Who is coming back?" Neville said softly once his breath calmed down and the magic surrounding them retreated.

"I don't — I don't know if I believe in prophecies but if they're true then-"

"Prophecies are made about people who believe in them, it's why they always come true." Neville said flippantly and then Harry understood. It was like hypnotism, you couldn't be hypnotised without wanting to be and Voldemort must have believed in the prophecy.

"I didn't know that."

"It's probably why Gran wanted me to take up Divination."

"Because she believes in prophecies?" Harry didn't see the Longbottom matriarch as being a believer in seers and prophecies and crystal balls.

"Because she didn't want me believing it."

Which made sense. After one year of Trelawney, there was no way Harry believed in predicting the future and all that rot.

"You really didn't know?" Neville looked at Harry with an odd expression on his face and Harry couldn't help but snort in return.

"Who would have told me? My muggle relatives? Dumbledore?" Harry had slipped in the headmaster's name as a joke, a whim. The thought of Dumbledore telling him things without being cryptic, was an utter lark.

"-Well, yes."

"What?"

"The Wizarding world knows that you're with muggles but everyone thinks Dumbledore's the one keeping you safe," Neville spoke slowly as if afraid of what reaction his words would get. He wasn't exactly wrong to do so. "And you do go off and have those talks with Dumbledore every year; he doesn't know most students' names. Besides, when in school he acts as the in loco parentis for all students whose guardians are muggles so-"

Harry opened his mouth to speak, rage, but found that nothing came out. It was as if he was under a silencing spell, only he knew he wasn't. He just didn't have the words to express it.

"Neville, the only time Dumbledore has talked to me is usually after I've just nearly died, with the exception of one time," Although considering the dangers of the Mirror of Erised perhaps that counted as a dangerous situation as well. "Everything I know of the Wizarding world is what I've learnt in school."

"You're joking?"

Harry could only shake his head.

"And I just found out that apparently I'm some sort of heir to the house of Potter so there's these things I should really kno-"

"You're the heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter and you didn't even know it?" Neville exclaimed, stricken.

"Not until a few hours ago. I was going to look in the library for something that might help this evening."

Neville made a strangled noise and rummaged through his trunk before hefting a large book out of it and handing it over to Harry.

"Read that and...I'm going to owl my Gran and ask her to send my old books to me." The nervous blustering Neville was gone and in his place was a boy who was much more sure of himself. "And maybe she can tell us something about this prophecy."

* * *

There were three days until Harry left Hogwarts for 'Durzkaban' as they had both started calling it and they were exploring the Chamber of Secrets. Sirius hadn't taken long to make the basilisk skin armour and with the free time he had, he'd made another set for Harry. Part of him had grimaced when he saw Harry in the silver and green, it reminded him of watching Regulus be sorted, hoping against hope he'd go into Ravenclaw and not Slytherin (Gryffindor and Hufflepuff weren't even on the table) only for it to crash into smithereens as Regulus was sorted into Slytherin. The hat had called out Slytherin the second it touched his head and his little brother had smirked in happiness, almost beaming if it wasn't quite becoming for Slytherins to beam and sitting down at that blasted table even as Lucius, the then Slytherin prefect looked over to where Sirius was sitting and gloated.

Only the scrunched up look of distaste on Harry's face kept him from making his feelings known.

"So how are things going with your re-education?" Sirius asked as they stood at Salazar's statue's mouth. IF the basilisk has used it to move around the school it would probably lead out to the grounds at some point and that made it a priority. Sirius sent out detection spells and what not into it and even when they came back negative for anything he transfigured a mouse from a bit of debris still in the chamber and sent it scurrying along the path.

"There are a lot of rules to this pureblood etiquette and it's kind of weirdly old fashioned actually." Harry twisted his mouth.

Sirius understood. He had learnt it all as Black heir, all his navigation done through pureblood circles where none of the old etiquette was lost, no matter how ridiculous it was. They called it tradition when it was little more than pomp and show.

"I hated it all too but some of it is important. Some of the old ways hold importace in rituals and actual magic but others are just-," what was a polite way to say 'cock measuring contests'? "Posturing."

"So why don't I just learn what's important then?"

"You should know the rules before you break them. Besides, some people might be using them to insult you to your face passive aggressively, wouldn't you like to know when they do that."

"I guess. I mean it's interesting to know that Malfoy was deliberately being a dick way back when we met."

"What do you mean?"

"He put his hand out for me to shake, said he could help me tell the difference between the good families and the bad."

That was insulting. As a French family the Malfoys weren't nearly as high up the food-chain as the Potters. They were outliers and not old money but they did have heaps of new money with thier Acromantula silk farms. Their influence came entirely from bribes where the Potters had their in magic and reputation and that was even before Harry's reputation as the Boy-Who-Lived and the one who defeated the former Lord that Malfoy Sr had followed. If they followed all the rules they loved so much, Malfoy should have been bowing low in front of Harry and he had done the opposite.

"Bad luck there Harry," A squeaky sound announced the arrival of their transfigured pet and Sirius stood up straight from where he was leaning against the wall. "Taking his hand would mean acknowledging his claim that you're beneath him."

"I didn't. It may not be for a Wizarding reason but I wasn't going to shake his hand either way."

Sirius couldn't help the grin he shot at Harry but his attention was diverted as the little grey mouse came into view. A rat would have been better, bigger target meant the spells if any, would have been obvious when they affected it but the memories of Pettigrew were still fresh in both their minds and even the mouse had been a bit of a stretch.

"Is it strange that I now want Crookshanks to hunt down every rat in the world?" Harry asked innocently with a grimace, still staring at the mouse that Sirius was checking over for spells and he jolted.

"You think you can get Crookshanks?"

A part kneazle cat would be an absolute boon in sensing traps, there was after all a reason why squibs often took up with kneazle hybrids, their ability to sense magic was uncanny and Crookshanks was smarter than any part kneazle Sirius had ever known.

"It's grooming day today." Harry said and with a shrug and a short prayer for Crookshanks' dignity, Sirius stepped into the passage, Harry following him.

"Lumos." The light from Sirius' wand was weak but he wanted it like that, didn't want any creepy-crawlies in there to be alerted to their presence. Harry whipped out his wand as well, clearly about to say the same spell but he seemed nervous, looking at the basilisk skin armour covering his armour with trepidation. Under the faint light, the scales gleamed silver-green and reflected it all around.

Harry had said that his parseltongue came very naturally to him when he was faced by a snake or thinking of one so Sirius wasn't really surprised when instead of Lumos, what came out of Harry's mouth was a hiss.

It did surprise him when that one hiss triggered a series of lights throughout the passage and suddenly a spectre emerged from the walls.

" _Who dares enter the lair of the Serpent?"_

Sirius had seen enough true portraits of this man, not the terrible busts in Hogwarts, no, the ones that really showed him as he was. His face was more narrow than most people thought it to be, a bit more youthful, the eyebrows had a beetling sense to them, the beard and hair long and pale. Sirius had always found it fascinating that the man looked more grandfatherly than sinister, so unlike the tales that flew around about him. Every time he'd seen the portraits, still and unmoving unlike most in the Wizarding world, he had been reminded of McGonagall actually. In this man he could see his former head of House glaring down her nose at him when there'd been a mass prank, somehow combining amused, disappointed and smug all together in a strange amalgam.

So the spew of curses and swears leaving his mouth was inevitable, really.

The spectre (because it wasn't a ghost, no ghost had such colour to it) frowned at him and tutted.

" _Mind your language, there is a young child standing right there!"_

Harry, bless his heart, ignored Sirius' spluttering to talk to the spectre himself. "I'm Harry sir and this is Sirius, may I ask who you are?"

He must have read about giving out full names and the power they held. Through the daze overpowering his mind Sirius was proud.

" _Salazar Slytherin, one of the great fours,"_ The spectre bowed his head slightly, _"At your service young student."_

And Harry, now aware of exactly why Sirius was gaping summarised their feelings in a weak croak.

"—What?"

* * *

 **A/N: Heads up, in my head canon Tom never really entered the basilisk passage, back then the basilisk was still there so I figure he must have had a healthy dose of fear in him and since he found the Chamber of Secrets in the seventh year while he was Head boy I don't reckon he had too much time to do some in depth exploring.**


End file.
